Film Review: Mission Kashmir

THE CAMERA moves along the calm Dal lake with the silent mountain
ranges in the background. A single houseboat is seen rocking
gently in the middle of the lake. A scene straight out of a
picture book one would think, till suddenly the boat bursts into
flames and splinters hit the screen.

Welcome to strife-ridden Srinagar and ``Mission Kashmir''. ``It
is a film about Kashmiriyat, which is the age-old tradition of
religious tolerance and harmony'' is how director Vidhu Vinod
Chopra described his film in an interview.

The film focusses on the violent unrest that has been dogging the
``Paradise on Earth''. It is a plea to restore peace and harmony.
The main players are Inspector General Inayat Khan (Sanjay Dutt)
and Altaf (Hrithik Roshan) who are pitted against each other in
an inevitable battle of muscle and wits. Seven-year old Altaf
watches his parents gunned down by a masked man, who haunts him
in his dreams. The orphan boy is brought to IG Khan's home where
Khan's wife Neelima (Sonali Kulkarni) takes care of the
traumatised boy, till Altaf discovers one day that the masked man
is the IG Khan himself. He runs away from the Khan's home with a
vow to destroy the IG.

Altaf comes under the wings of the dreaded mercenary Hilal
Kohistani (Jackie Shroff). Their goal is `mission Kashmir'. The
stable factor in Altaf's life is his childhood sweetheart Sufiya
Parvez (Preity Zinta), who works for a television channel.

The screenplay by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Vikram Chandra, Suketu
Mehta and Abhijat Joshi suffers because of the predictable twists
and turns. But what make the film watchable are the performances
and excellent production values. Also the characters, barring
Jackie Shroff's, are well- etched out. Full marks to
cinematographer Binod Pradhan whose camera realistically captures
the beautiful as well as the ugly face of Kashmir. The aerial
shots of the valley leave one wondering when things will return
to normalcy. Some shots really leave a mark like the one where
Hrithik is seen falling into the lake from a height. Also Jackie
Shroff appears menacing thanks to the low camera angles.

This is Sanjay Dutt's film all the way. He has evolved as an
actor and his is an understated and subtle performance. The scene
where he sobs his heart out in the bathroom after he loses his
son, really moves the audience. Hrithik Roshan's is a role more
along the lines of ``Fiza'' but he seems more convincing here as
the misguided terrorist than in ``Fiza.'' But does he have to
show off his muscles all the time?

It is a typical Hindi villain role for Jackie Shroff, whose
character has no shades whatsoever. Preity Zinta is her usual
cherubic self and lends colour to the otherwise serious
proceedings. The music by the trio, Shankar-Ehsan-Loy is catchy.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra's message on Kashmiriyat gets diluted towards
the middle of the film as the focus shifts to the personal war
between Dutt and Roshan. ``Mission Kashmir'' might have its
faults but it is definitely a cut above the rest of the
commercial Hindi films that have been made on terrorism.